No matter the shape or size, if your pond has lost its form or isn’t functioning to its full capacity, maybe its time for a change! If your pond isn’t quite up to your standards and you just aren’t happy with it anymore, don’t despair; a simple face lift could be just what your pond needs! A large portion of our work comes from renovating pre-existing ponds and restoring balance back in your ecosystem. Heres an example of what a typical pond renovation looks like from start to finish!

An unpleasant sight. Stagnant water from a pond not functioning properly. This pond belongs to the mosquitos, not the fish. Let’s change that!!

The Removal. To the common eye this may look like a big mess, but to us, this is a blank canvas ready for some artwork!

Things are starting to take their basic form. Most of the boulders are in place and the overall dimensions of the pond have been set. Next step is to soften things up and blend it together.

With the addition of aquatic plants into the pond, the transition of stone to water has been naturalized. As the edges around the pond are finished the pond will blend in to the surrounding garden like it was always there.

Viola! The pond transformation is complete. This pond is now ready for some fish! This is what a balanced pond ecosystem looks like – doesn’t it look much happier!

Looking for ways to spruce up the curb appeal of your home? A simple pondless water feature is a great way to achieve this! Check out this one day transformation, where an old stagnant pond was converted into an exciting pondless water feature!

An existing small pond has become over-grown, requiring too much maintenance and interaction for this customers busy lifestyle.

A pondless waterfall with several cascades provides a variety of soothing sights and sounds at many different angles, perfect for an entranceway to your home.

The refreshing sound of running water can be very inviting; an excellent touch for your front yard!

A pondless waterfall is an ideal, low maintenance solution for those looking to minimize messy garden space, or grass that needs to be cut.

Winter, go away already! Nobody longs for the spring more than the Greater Toronto Area pond owner. There’s nothing quite like the sights and the sounds that a Genoscape water feature provides for our customers. We love building ponds and pondless features for the great people of Toronto! Our home base is in Markham, so we are only a hop skip and a jump just about anywhere in the GTA.

If you would like to speak to us about a feature for your property, please feel free to contact us to set up a consultation. Stay warm and remember, spring is just around the corner!

In my last Canada Blooms post, I explained how the feature garden builders get selected to participate in the festival. There is a theme for each year that is picked by the Canada Blooms management. This year the theme is ‘Wild’. We, the garden designers, must come up with something that fits within that theme. Our landscaping style has a natural feel so the theme wild wasn’t that far of a stretch for us.

This year, Adam Bienenstock of Bieenenstock Natural Playgrounds, approached me and asked if I wanted to team up with him for a build. What he proposed was combining our spaces and creating a very large garden that represents a Carolinian forest trail. He was already working with the legendary artist, Robert Bateman to promote the newly appointed Robert Bateman Trail located in Toronto. I thought it was a great opportunity to work with some talented individuals and have a little fun. We, will be in charge of all of the water features found in both gardens. Needless to say, this created a bit of confusion because we now had to redesign our display to accommodate our newly appointed space.

A few weeks later, we were contacted by Harrowsmith’s Truly Canadian Almanac. They wanted to write an article on one of the feature garden builders, and they chose us! Harrowsmith felt that our display, and us as a company, shared their same values. Our love of sustainability and natural design made us a perfect fit. The name of the article was titled ‘Wet, Wild, & Canadian’. Perfect. That’s now the name of our garden. Which I might add, sprouted a sigh of relief from everyone I know (my wife especially) because the title “The Inevitable Outcome” that I came up with, was truly hated by all. Myself included.

Our revised 2014 Canada Blooms Garden

So here we are, 16 days away from when we start construction of our display, and I couldn’t be happier. We are working with some amazing people this year and I know that it will turn out beautifully.

Next week I’ll talk about some of the things we have to do to prepare for the show. We only have 5 days to construct our garden so a lot of components need to be pre-constructed and assembled on site. This proves to be a challenging endeavour to say the least!

Click here to read a preview of the Harrowsmith article featuring Genoscape!

Well here we are, February 21, 2015 and there’s still a ton of snow on the ground. The high temperature for today was -5C and the last thing most of you are thinking about is your pond. Well believe it or not, Spring will come, and it will be here before you know it. I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you about a cleaning and maintenance service that we provide for Greater Toronto pond owners.

We have been cleaning and maintaining ponds in the Greater Toronto Area for over ten years, with great success. What we do when we clean your pond in the spring is not rocket science by any means, but there is a proper way to do it as to ensure the survival of your fish and to give your pond the proper start up it requires. We have created a 20 Point Spring Pond Cleaning Checklist that we fill out at each and every pond we clean. This allows us to be efficient while we are conducting our cleaning services and it also guarantees that we don’t forget anything. No stone left unturned, so to speak.

We conduct spring cleaning services for many different types of ponds, whether we installed it or not. During our first assessment of the pond, our customers have the opportunity to request any enhancements they may desire to their pond. Some of the upgrades we can provide are: installing a skimmer, installing biological filtration, installing pond lights, installing plant pockets, installing an ion gen, adding rock to naturalize the pond, rebuilding waterfalls, adding some drift wood and many more. Everything that we do is so you get more enjoyment out of your pond!

Our spring pond cleaning season typically starts in the beginning of April. We clean ponds based on a first come first serve basis so if you are the type who likes to get you pond season started early, you better give us a call soon! We are always here to answer any questions you may have regarding your pond so please feel free to contact us whenever you like.